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US Macht-politik in Eurasia and the Re-fashioning of the Greater Middle East
By Vassilis K. Fouskas
Abstract
This article is an attempt to interpret US strategy in Europe-Asia and in its key strategic subregion, the Middle East. It locates US strategy in a post-Cold War analytical framework, trying to diagnose the deeper reasons that have led and are leading the US to thrust forward power across the globe the way it does. The fundamental argument we will try to establish is that US macht-politik has shifted from a balance-of-power game that prevailed during the Cold War into an overt projection of overwhelming force, disregarding the posture of core Western allies of the US, such as France and Germany. From this perspective, I place the realist/neo-realist concept of 'balance-of-power' in the framework of relations between the great powers of the West (France, Germany, Britain) and the emerging great powers of the East (Russia, China, India), thus moving the notion away from its Cold War realist/neo-realist usage, applied to the bi-polar system centered on the USSR-US dichotomy.
Full Text (PDF, 23 pages, 173.2 KB)